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Good news on the VATMOSS issue

Remember the problems when VATMOSS was first introduced for digital goods – e.g. ebooks – and VAT had to be charged according to the customer’s country?

Many small independent e-bookstores closed, as it was too much administration cost and work, compared to the direct sales they made.

But now there’s Good News!

From the EU VAT Action Campaign Team

HOT OFF THE PRESS:
Just announced by Pierre Moscovici of the European Commission: proposed EU VAT threshold of €10k cross-border sales and the €100k simplifications we have all been campaigning for since December 2014.

Summary:

The first €10k of cross-border Digital EU sales (i.e. not in your home country) each year will revert to your domestic VAT rules – so you won’t need to apply EUVAT or register for VATMOSS, if your EU digital exports fall below this level.

From €10,001 to €100k of cross-border EU Digital sales you will be allowed the following simplifications:

1 piece of data to prove the customer location (e.g. payment processor data or self-declared country), instead of the current (technically-challenging) two

Your home country invoicing requirements will apply – you will no longer have to comply with 28 different sets of invoicing rules

These proposals will be presented to the ECOFIN Council of Finance Ministers very soon, who will then have it debated by the technical level working party meetings

I have just spoken with the EU Commission and they expect agreement in 2017, with a view to implementing these proposals from 1st January 2018

This will help many thousands of micro businesses to continue trading, without having to move to 3rd party platforms (with up to 30% commission charges) or geo-blocking.